and rivers, they faced a storm of criticism and
ridicule that would have daunted any but such as Washington and Johnson
of Virginia or White and Hazard of Pennsylvania or Morris and Watson of
New York. Every imaginable objection to such projects was advanced--from
the inefficiency of the science of engineering to the probable
destruction of all the fish in the streams. In spite of these
discouragements, however, various men set themselves to form in rapid
succession the Potomac Company in 1785, the Society for Promoting
the Improvement of Inland Navigation in 1791, the Western Inland Lock
Navigation Company in 1792, and the Lehigh Coal Mine Company in 1793.
A brief review of these various enterprises will give a clear if not a
complete view of the first era of inland water commerce in America.

The Potomac Company, authorized in 1785 by the legislatures of Maryland
and Virginia, received an appropriation of $6666 from each State for
opening a road from the headwaters of the Potomac to either the Cheat
or the Monongahela, "as commissioners... shall find most convenient and
beneficial to the Western settlers." This was the only public aid which
the enterprise received; and the stipulated purpose clearly indicates
the fact that, in the minds of its promoters, the transcontinental
character of the undertaking appeared to be vital. The remainder of the
money required for the work was raised by public subscription in the
principal cities of the two States. In this way 40,300 pounds was
subscribed, Virginia men taking 266 shares and Maryland men 137 shares.
The stock holders elected George Washington as president of the company,
at a salary of thirty shillings a year, with four directors to aid him,
and they chose as general manager James Rumsey, the boat mechanician.
These men then proceeded to attack the chief impediments in the
Potomac--the Great Falls above Washington, the Seneca Falls at the mouth
of Seneca Creek, and the Shenandoah Falls at Harper's Ferry. But, as
they had difficulty in obtaining workmen and sufficient liquor to
cheer them in their herculean tasks, they made such slow progress that
subscribers, doubting Washington's optimistic prophecy that the stock
would increase in value twenty per cent, paid their assessments only
after much deliberation or not at all. Thirty-six years later, though
$729,380 had been spent and lock canals had been opened about the
unnavigable stretches of the Potomac River, a commissi